Good Summer Reads – 10 Thriller Books You Won’t Be Able To Put Down

Summer is the season of many things: barbecues, bare legs and books. These twisty, chilling, can’t-put-them-down thrillers will take you through summer from start to finish.

1 / 10

Best Summer Reads: Into the Water

If you devoured The Girl on the Train, you’ll want to add Paula Hawkins’ latest to your list. This time she’s back with the same twisted psychological tone, following the story of a single mother who met her fate in the bottom of a river running through a small town shortly after a young woman met the same end. Of course, it’s never exactly as it seems though, is it?

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, $21 at amazon.ca.

2 / 10

Best Summer Reads: What She Knew

Not quite a motivational book, this thriller launched earlier in the year, but will be the perfect addition to your summer reading list as one woman’s young son vanishes without a trace. As is the case with most missing persons, everyone is a suspect—including those who you’d least expect.

What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan, $15 at amazon.ca.

3 / 10

Best Summer Reads: Since We Fell

The author of Mystic River and Shutter Island is back with a thriller of a new kind. Centered around former journalist-turned-semi-recluse (after a very public meltdown) as she gets drawn into conspiracy and deception that unravels her otherwise perfect life and marriage.

Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane, $20 at indigo.ca.

4 / 10

Best Summer Reads: Woman No. 17

You can read your relationship book another time. A darker, slower-to-reveal-itself thriller is equal parts disturbing and delicious in its tone. When two women are brought together under seemingly innocent circumstances, it’s obvious that everyone has secrets that they’d go to great lengths to protect.

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki, $30 at amazon.ca.

5 / 10

Best Summer Reads: Camino Island

We know you love self-help books, but this is a break from that. Few people can create intrigue quite like John Grisham. Camino Island, his thirtieth book, follows three paths as they intertwine around one stolen—and priceless—item that tracks from Princeton to Camino Island, Florida.

Camino Island by John Grisham, $23 at amazon.ca.

6 / 10

Best Summer Reads: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

From 1950s Hollywood to New York’s Upper East Side, Evelyn Hugo, a former Hollywood starlet, is finally ready to tell her story to an unsuspecting journalist. More a scandalous ride than a traditional thriller, this novel paints all of the glamorous (and salacious) details of Old Hollywood and how the reclusive actress wound up where she is in present day.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, $15 at amazon.ca.

7 / 10

Best Summer Reads: The Substitute

With Canada 150 around the corner, we’d be remiss not to include a homegrown thriller. The Substitute follows a brilliant but completely clueless substitute teacher as he’s interrogated for the murder of one of his students who was found in his backyard. Shifting perspectives from him to an unknown (but insightful) narrator, this book will keep you guessing to the very end.

The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan, $18 at amazon.ca.

8 / 10

Best Summer Reads: The Child

When the remains of a child is found in a demolished house, a journalist starts piecing together the clues that link the skeleton to a missing persons case that happened decades earlier. If you read and devoured The Widow, consider this twisty novel a must-read.

The Child by Fiona Barton, $22 at amazon.ca.

9 / 10
good summer reads 2017

Best Summer Reads: Fierce Kingdom

How far would woman go to protect her son? This gripping novel tells you. Revealed over the course of three hours, this thriller follows a mother and her young son as they attempt to escape from a lone gunman in the local zoo in a story of breath-holding survival.

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips, $22 at amazon.ca.

10 / 10

Best Summer Reads: The Lying Game

The latest from The Woman in Cabin 10 novelist Ruth Ware, The Lying Game provides an easily digestible (and wholly satisfying) thriller about four women whose teenage antics had repercussions lasting well into adulthood. After all, consequences (especially those of the criminal kind) must be faced. (Available July 25.)

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, $23 at amazon.ca.

Newsletter Unit